How America’s State Tourism Boards Compete on Social Media

Are visual-based social media platforms being leveraged enough by U.S. destination marketing organizations? We think they could do better.

— Joyce Manalo

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Go Hawaii’s Facebook Page

I Love New York’s Twitter Account

Visit Florida’s YouTube Channel

Pure Michigan’s Instagram

Visit California’s Instagram

Independence Day, the most American of U.S. holidays is upon us.

To celebrate this holiday, we came up with a summer 2014 edition of the official U.S. tourism boards for each state by Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram followers.

Although 100 percent of the states — along with Washington, D.C. — are on Facebook and Twitter, only 59 percent are present in all four platforms. 96 percent have YouTube channels and 65 percent are present on Instagram.

Eighty-five percent of 12.5 million followers that drive the total social media presence of each brand comes from Facebook. Twelve percent hail from Twitter followers and less than 1 percent are on YouTube, Instagram.

The average number of followers for Facebook is 215,000; Twitter is 30,000; YouTube is 1,000 followers; and Instagram is 10,000 followers. Fans of these tourism boards were more likely to follow on Instagram than on YouTube. The immediacy of Instagram and its user experience on mobile is a huge factor.

Fifteen of the 20 states without Instagram accounts had Pinterest accounts. It will be interesting to see how the brands will choose to optimize their presence and content for both these visual-based platforms by the end of 2014.

The top tenth percentile of the brands with the strongest presence on social media includes Hawaii, New York, California, Michigan, and Florida. Each of them dominate on different platforms.

Hawaii is number one on Facebook at 1,784,296; New York is number one on Twitter at 230,000, double of Michigan’s followers; Florida has YouTube 10,355 subscribers and Michigan comes in second at 5,291; Michigan is number one on Instagram with 102,693 followers, double of California’s with the second highest Instagram following.

Corrections: Visit Vermont replaced by Vermont Tourism, West Virginia Division of Tourism Facebook and Twitter Followers.Although 100 percent (from 98 percent) of the states — along with Washington, D.C. — are on Facebook and Twitter, only 59 percent (from (57 percent) are present in all four platforms. 96 percent (from 95 percent) have YouTube channels and 65 percent are present on Instagram.

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